The Bnei Menashe are coming (plus one)
After careful consideration of all the potential aliyah candidates, we made our list and it was final: 161 Bnei Menashe are scheduled to board the buses from Manipur on November 14, 2017 on their way to their new homes in Israel.
Every seat was paid and accounted for. Rooms were assigned for their arrival at the Kfar Hasidim absorption center in Israel.
And then the number jumped by one: to 162 new immigrants.
Was there a stowaway? A Bnei Menashe community member who just couldn’t bear the thought of remaining in India while his or her friends and family were jetting of to a life in the Holy Land.
Not exactly.
Immigrant #162 didn’t have much choice in the matter. Her name is Hadasa and she was born just a few days ago to Khazon and Shira Lhungdim. She will become the youngest Bnei Menashe olah chadasha that Shavei Israel has ever brought to Israel!
Hadasa is Khazon and Shira’s first child and a joyful extension of their new Israeli family. They have only distant relatives in Israel.
Although the Bnei Menashe often consider themselves all “cousins” to each other, most of those making aliyah in November – like Khazon and Shira – will not have direct family members in Israel. As a result, your financial assistance provides particularly important support for this round of Shavei Israel’s “Operation Menashe.”
Hadasa Lhungdim is just a baby, but for sports fans – like Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund – there is an additional significance to her birth. It brings the total immigrants coming in November to the same number of games in a season of Major League Baseball in the U.S.
Perhaps this cohort should have a team name, How about the “Manipurians?”
Here are some more pictures of baby Hadasa and her parents.
